Woman survives cancer, creates medical research fundraising site

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»Play VideoMolly Lindquist had trouble finding a site to donate to specific research projects, so she created her own. (KATU photo)

PORTLAND, Ore. – Molly Lindquist survived breast cancer in 2011 and she knew she wanted to help fight the disease.

With two young daughters, Lindquist said she wanted to do what she could to help find a cure by the time they’re grown up. She had a hard time finding a fundraising site to donate money to, so she set one up on her own.

It’s a new way for someone to support the kind of medical research they care about even if they only have a few dollars to spare. You can browse through projects that are looking for funding, and donate any amount you want.

“You’re picking a specific research project that you want to support,” she said. “So it’s something that’s meaningful to you. You are then supporting that by donating, and the beauty of this is there’s an ongoing communication with them.”

The site is already catching on. Lindquist said it’s raised more than $8,000 for research projects in a week.

“You’re looped into that person’s lab, what’s going on with them, and they’ll be providing quarterly updates as to what’s going on with their projects,” Lindquist said.

Monika Davare is a researcher at OHSU’s Knight Cancer Institute. She said the funds she’ll get from contributions will help her test drugs for fighting brain cancer in children. It’s research that’s so specific that Davare said there’s no way it would get federal funding.

“It seemed unusual in the sense that academic researchers have a certain mindset about how we go about raising funds. But I do think we need to come out of that box,” said Davare. “We need to find funding where there is funding.”

Lindquist hopes her daughters will never have to endure what she went through.

“For me personally, I hope we help support the research that leads to a world where my girls don’t have to even think about breast cancer.”